Sunday, July 3, 2016

No calls, only whatsapp, say Mysuru corporators

Social networking sites has come as a blessing for residents of several areas in city to draw the attention of elected representatives towards their problems.

Residents simply click a photo of the problem in their vicinity and upload it to a Whatsapp group for corrective action by the corporator. The Corporators in turn instruct the concerned MCC officials to attend to the problem immediately and ensure the complaint is resolved.

This move of corporators has brought immense relief to the citizenry, as they need not wait for days at stretch to get their complaints redressed. Even Corporators seem relaxed as they were finding difficult to attend their phone calls.

Corporators JS Jagadish and D Nagabhushan have created 15-18 groups in areas which falls under their wards and make sure their complaints are attended at the earliest.

Sharadadevi Resident Vimala says: “Earlier, it was quite challenging to register complaints as most of the time phones were not attended, and Corporators were not accessible. The watsappgroup has helped us lot to get our problems solved. The vacant site close to my house was cleaned immediately acting on the complaint. More over, it helps to know our neighbours."

Ward 22 Corporator JS Jagadish who monitors 17 Whatsapp groups says: “We have received lot of appreciation from the residents as we respond to their complaints effectively. On an average I receive around 5 to 15 complaints daily as 17 layouts come under my ward.”

'Even the groups are used to intimate if there is water / power problem in our locality, and residents circulate messages seeking blood, any helps required. This is creating a good bondage between us,' he opines.

Ward 34 Corporator Nagabhushan who receives around 12 to 15 complaints said: 'For the past eight months I am using Whatsapp and over this period I have received quite a number of complaints. I immediately instruct my officials to attend the complaints. After the complaints are attended they acknowledgme with a 'thanks'. This new technological tool has indeed saved me a lot of time.'

“We are using Whatsapp to the maximum extent to hear grievances and attend complaints. We have roped persons to go through the messages daily. Majority of the complaints are attended to within a couple of hours, while road works and others are delayed. Potholes are filled with mud as a short time measure and later it will be fixed,” added the duo.

Most of the complaints received by the residents are related to civic issues such as blockages of drains, pig menace, water leakage, unattended pot holes, pruning of roadside trees, drinking water-power problem, garbage collection, maintenance of parks, cleaning vacant sites, and non-functioning streetlights.